Ms. Informed

President Obama imposed a $500,000 salary cap yesterday on senior executive pay for all companies who receive government bailouts. Now, I was hearing about this at the gym while watching The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. (Which, by the way, is the coolest name. Almost as cool as Dexter Freebish. Almost.)

Blitzer then had CNN colleague Jack Cafferty weigh in on the topic, who, while not exactly saying that he himself thought it was socialism, did more than “suggest” the notion, in an effort to get viewers to email him their opinions.

I was getting so heated. Maybe it was the elliptical. But maybe it was his words. Everyone at the gym must have thought I was crazy, because at this point I was talking to the TV screen in front of me. “How is that socialism???” How is the government saying what they want done with THEIR money, socialism? The government is not coming in and telling these companies what to do with their own hard-earned money. No, the companies f**ked (hey, it’s a PG blog) that one up a long time ago. They don’t HAVE hard-earned money. Unless you consider my hard-earned money that will be taken from me in the form of taxes and they will receive in a pretty package termed “bailout.”

No where but on Wall Street can an employee drive his company so far into the ground and still get his million dollar salary, his million dollar bonus, his mansions, his yachts, his vacations and his open-bar holiday parties. The rich just keep getting richer, and this time, at the expense of the middle class. If I were to screw my job up as bad as these people did theirs, a salary cap would be the least of my concerns. Termination would be the more realistic option.

Millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their houses, their kids can’t go to college, they can’t put food on the table or make ends meet…all thanks to these greedy, selfish execs who created this problem in the first place.

I realize I am ranting now, but I am pissed, and I am glad and grateful that President Obama is doing something to end this complete lunacy, because that’s exactly what it is.

Factcheck.org, a non-profit, nonpartisan group that “monitor[s] the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases” checked several statements made by Senators Biden, Mccain and Obama, as well as Governor Palin, for validity and truth.

Facts can be skewed, and politicians can be misleading. Find out for yourself if what they say is true.

Definitely worth a read: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/category/fact-check/

From MoveOn.org. It was really hard not to bold every single word below.

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.”

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.

4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.”

5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill.

6. He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations.

7. Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.”

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.”

10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.

Let me preface this with saying, I think Palin did a decent job. I knew she was going to — after the Couric and Gibson disasters, you know they were going to prepare her for every square inch of this debate. She did hold her own and was able to answer a question without looking like an idiot. There’s no doubt she’s a good public speaker. While there were some questions asked that she avoided (and Biden called her out on those), I think all in all she really improved the impression a lot of Americans have about her.

That said, I still feel Biden took the debate. (And a lot of Americans agree with me: Polls from CBS and CNN show Biden won 46% to 21%, and 51% to 36%, respectively.) For everything Palin said, Biden had numbers. He had facts. He had answers. For example — Obama’s tax relief proposals. You want to know HOW what these candidates are proposing will affect YOU? 95 percent of the middle class (that’s YOU, faithful reader) will receive a tax cut. Those that don’t — will stay the same. No harm done. And small-business owners? According to Biden, 95 percent of small-business owners make LESS than $250,000 a year — so they will NOT be affected.

How can you say Palin is “very aware” of Mccain’s accomplishments? Obviously you haven’t seen this. Watch it, and I’ll get back to ya.

Some bloggers feel that Biden came off as “better than you”, but if you do feel that way…SHOULDN’T the VP be better than you?? I sure hope so. I know I wouldn’t feel safe with any old Joe Sixpack running this country.

I don’t think Palin is real. She is a politician. None of them, Obama included, are real. I do not relate to her. And I think a lot of American women feel that way. And honestly, the Republican party is preying on the tears of women who do think they can relate to her. They are preying on women who say “I’m on the PTA, she’s on the PTA!” They are preying on women who think being a mother of 5 can translate to being vice president. I’m sure there are a lot of skills that a women learns from motherhood, and I’m sure a lot of them can be applied to politics, but for me, that is not enough.

Biden attacked Mccain’s healthcare plans (or lack thereof). Mccain-Palin talk a big game about making changes, getting the gov’t back on the side of the people, etc., but cannot point to anything concrete that will bring about this change and reform. Biden really opens your eyes up to Mccain’s stance on the troops. Mccain cut off funding for the troops. Biden also attacks Palin’s view on global warming. How can she say she doesn’t want to “argue about the causes”? HOW on God’s green earth can you FIND A SOLUTION if you can’t IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM? This is something I have been saying, and I was so relieved when Biden said it on that national stage. (”If you don’t understand what the cause is, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a solution.” — How can anyone with any common sense argue with that??)

Perhaps my favorite excerpt of the night:

The bottom line is, Palin may have passed the test, but Biden aced it.

“I’ll try to find ya some and I’ll bring ‘em to ya” ????
Wow, that’s got my vote.

A Perez Hilton post has really pissed me off.

In an interview with Newsweek, Lynne says, “I mean, the mother, [Sarah] Palin, was celebrated for this. Every woman in the world has applauded her strength and her convictions and poor little old Jamie Lynn – you saw how she was crucified. Everybody did, firsthand … I just feel like it’s been a very hypocritical situation.”

True.

But, no worries. We agree. Bristol is a slut!

While I’ve been known to take a crack at the Palins for the actions of their teen daughter (among other things), it has ONLY been because her mother (and her mother’s party to some degree) are so adamantly against sex education and a woman’s right to choose.

That said, how dare Perez Hilton call her a slut. Does this mean all sexually active 17-year-olds are sluts? It’s a horrible society that we live in that glamourizes sex in one breath, and condemns those who have it in the next.

Sure Bristol Palin has made some poor choices in her young life thus far, I think we can all agree on that. But to call her a slut for having sex with her boyfriend crosses the line.